$373M+ Pumped Into Food Tech, Meal Kits Have the Economics Wrong + More

The latest food tech & innovation news.

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Food Tech Media Startup Funding, M&A and Partnerships: October 2015
$373M was invested across 18 food tech deals globally, plus First Data’s $2.56B IPO and the merger of China’s Meituan and Dianping, valued at $15B.

Millennial Food Innovators: Henlight Boosts Small Scale Egg Production Via Solar Power
This week in our Thought For Food student innovator series, we chat with Henlight, a startup that's bringing large-scale poultry farming tech to small farmers.

10 Steps to Getting Into Whole Foods: #7 Crunching Numbers
Bandar Foods walks you though how to calculate what it costs to bring your specialty food product to market.

Why There Are No Farm-to-Table Unicorns, Henlight Boosts Small Scale Egg Production + More
Last week's juiciest food tech and innovation news featuring Ample Hills, BuyingPoultry, Marc Vetri and more.

MUST-ATTEND EVENT

It's been a whirlwind year for food innovation, and now it's time to celebrate! Come taste and explore the future of food at our first ever Holiday Bash featuring The Purple Carrot, Exo, Grove, Radicle Farm Company, Ox Verte and many more. Tickets are going fast, so snag yours now.

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CPG

Pinnacle Foods to Acquire Boulder Brands for $975 Million - The Denver Post
The Birds Eye, Vlasic maker plans to keep The "better-for-you business hub" in Boulder.

Nutrition, Wine, IoT, Big Data and Artificial Intelligence Come Together at Food+Tech Accelerator - Sustainable Brands
Reimagine Food's second Prometheus accelerator is on the hunt for startups using emerging technologies to create a better food future.

What's In a Product? New Bill Looks to Overhaul Food Labeling - Food Dive
The Food Labeling Modernization Act aims to update rules that haven't been changed since 1990.

Can Established Food Brands Stomach a Change in Customer Demands? - Entrepreneur
Smaller brands are finding the support they need by forming what used to be considered unholy marriages with food conglomerates.

Why Artisanal Food Makers Find It Hard to Digest Growth - Forbes
Getting onto the shelves of large retail chains can be a burden as well as a blessing.

Breakfast Cereal's Last Gasp - The Atlantic
Better-informed consumers are ditching the bowls of sugar that were once a triumph of 20th-century marketing.

STARTUP RESOURCES

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RETAIL

DoorDash Could Be the Next Unicorn—Or a Sign of Disaster - Wired
It's already raised $40M, and it may soon reap another round of funding that would put the company in the same lofty territory as Uber, Airbnb and other "unicorns".

Meal Kit Start-Ups Have The Economics All Wrong - Forbes
Grocery stores and restaurants have huge competitive advantages in being the providers of meal kits. Startups need to create platforms for these providers.

iOrderFresh Plugs the Gap In Supply Chain By Getting Products From Farm to Kitchen Within 12 Hours - YourStory
The startup does not keep any overnight inventories for fresh products and has only two delivery slots a day.

RESTAURANTS

Deliveroo Raises AU $140 Million in Series D Funding - The Tech Bulletin
Greenoaks Capital, DST Global, Accel, Hummingbird Ventures and Index Ventures participated bringing its total capital raised to AU $280M.

Online Restaurant Petoo to Ramp Up Expansion Plans - Business Standard
The startup is looking to expand to five cities in 2016 and will set up a food factory in Bengaluru.

Top of the Food Chain: Fine Dining’s Push for Sustainable Seafood - TakePart
Salmon and shrimp may be popular fare, but leading chefs prove that less familiar local seafood can earn top honors.

The Future Of Resto Empires Is The Food Truck Industry - Food World News
Restaurants have evolved into a more unique and cost-efficient image. And it is all due to the existence of food trucks.

Malaysia: TABLEAPP secures Series A funding from Sea Unicorn, 500 Startups - DealStreetAsia
The round was led by Sea Unicorn with participation from 500 Startups and will be used to help the startup scale.

AGRICULTURE

How a Family Farm Opened a Restaurant and Created Its Own Supply Chain - Civil Eats
New York's Grazin' Diner goes beyond farm-to-table.

Green Innovation: This company Is Growing the Future of Automated Agriculture - Mashable
An inside look at how Spread aims to change the future of sustainably-produced food.

Big Data Is On Call to Deliver More Food for a Growing Population - GreenBiz
Farm productivity will need to increase and food waste decrease if 9 billion people are to have enough food to survive.

Visionary Homefarm Combines Retirement Homes and Vertical Urban Farms - Inhabitat
In addition to its aquaponic vertical farming system, Homefarm includes a roof garden, fruits and vegetable marketplace and biomass power plant.

7 Things We Learned About AgTech - The Guardian
In an online discussion experts debated the farmer’s changing role and how ‘ag-tech’ might make farming sexier and better-paying.

EATERS

How ChefSteps and Gabe Newell Plan to Transform Sous Vide Cooking - Eater
How a video game mogul, an airplane engineer, a scientist, a designer, and a bunch of chefs developed new immersion circulator Joule.

Travelers’ Food App AirGrub Snaps Up $1.5 Million - PE Hub
The investors were not named. It will use the funds to continuing adding restaurant partners and locations.

21 Organizations Fighting for Labor Rights in the Food System - Food Tank
These organizations are working to ensure workers’ voices are heard at every stage of the food supply chain.

The Faces of the New Food Revolution - Aljazeera
Activism across the food industry is far more diverse than media stereotypes suggest.

Behind Your Holiday Sweet Potato Dish, Hard Work In The Fields - NPR
It's exhausting work — some of the most physically demanding farm work there is.

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